Vietnam’s coal industry is fragmented and under complicated geological conditions. In spite of the technology advancement, the conditions for applying and deploying technology are limited by scale. Vietnam Coal industry is facing difficulties such as the decrease of economic efficiency because the domestic coal price declined, the increase of cost of goods manufactured while the open-cast mining reserves are declining, the increase of fees, tax. Vietnam has troubles competing with imported coal.

In Q1/2019, the coal volume nationwide increased by 8.7% compared to the previous year. The coal volume and export turnover both decreased 94.5% and 94.2% respectively over the same period of 2018 due to the sharp decline of inventories after positive consumption in 2018. The import volume rose by 149.1% compared to the same period of 2018, the import turnover increased 88.4% over the previous year.

The business results of coal enterprises have grown sharply compared to 2018 mainly due to the impact of the increase of the world coal price. However, TKV currently holds a monopoly on coal, so it is difficult for these enterprises to be active on their own business plan but to depend completely on TKV.